Mobile Phone News:

Well, the iPhone 3.0 sneak peak event’s gone down, so it’s time to see exactly what additions we can expect to see in the next iPhone software (and possibly, who knows, the next iPhone). And you know I’m going to say it… FINALLY, the iPhone gets copy/paste!

About. Damn. Time.

Apparently the wait was due to security concerns.

Er, what?

Anyway, moving on… it doesn’t end there, because it seems Apple have finally admitted they needed to include a couple more key features that Apple fans have long said they do not, nor would they ever, need. First up is the obvious one, MMS. After many heated arguments with Dan about whether MMS is needed (not to mention the fact that the iPhone was behind most of the cheapest phones on the market, that support MMS), Apple have finally added it.

It’s going to be interesting to see some of the more hardcore fans trying to do a U-turn on their opinions with some dignity. They’ve said for ages that MMS is stupid, and not needed, but now what will they say, now that Apple have said it’s a cool feature?

Hehe, should be fun to watch, anyway.

Oh, and if you update the software on the original, first-gen iPhone, it still won’t support MMS…

Also, one of the biggest features is a system-wide search tool, called Spotlight, which is essentially the same idea as the system-wide search tool on the Palm Pre, except that with the iPhone, there’s an added step to actually start up the search app, whereas with the Pre, you just type on the keyboard. Oh, and iPhone 3.0 finally gives the device stereo Bluetooth, something else that other phones have had for ages, and you can finally send files through Bluetooth, another feature that other phones have done since, ooh, 2003.

Oh, except, that’s not the big thing you may have expected, because it only works with other devices that use the ‘Bonjour’ peer to peer sharing system, for Bluetooth. So, in other words, only other iPhones and iPod Touches…

Also, there were a couple of things still missing. No video capture on the camera, for one. Oh, and no Flash support, so you still can’t look at flash-heavy sites on the internet.

There was one area, though, where cool new things were happening, and that’s with the new features that third party apps can use. Things like being able to purchase extras (like a rocket launcher in a shooting game) through the app, and instantly paying for and getting it. Oh, and the new diabetes helper, that can help diabetes sufferers plan their insulin injections, and so on. Apps developers got the lion’s share of the event, and to be fair, they did show some cool stuff. Some very cool stuff.

I just find it annoying that the iPhone is only now bringing in standard features that other phones have had for ages, and Apple fans will proudly proclaim them as innovations, not the oversights that they actually are. On the plus side, though, the comments over at Engadget Mobile are pretty funny!

And finally, a release date; the iPhone 3.0 software will be ready for customers in June, which once again, does hint towards a new iPhone being announced this summer…

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